Yu-gi-oh 2: Reflection of the Past
by TheWingedSunDragonofRal13402
Summary: After the Ceremonial Duel, Atemu returned to the Afterlife and became dark again. Yugi was sent back to help him. But when a new foe arises, it seems like there was more than he thought. Warning: swearing, violence, tortures might be added. Disclaimer: I
1. Chapter 1: The Servant of Light

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-gi-oh (nor the gods in Egyptian Myth).

**Chapter 1: The servant of Light.**

Unknown's POV:

In an unknown realm of power and light…

"What are we going to do?" Someone shouted.

"This was a bad idea right in the first place!" Another roared.

"It seemed to succeed at first, but this is worse than we thought." A voice said calmly.

"Indeed." Someone agreed.

"We're doomed!" The first voice exclaimed.

And it continued like that. Shouts of arguments could be heard from miles away. I sighed. They are arguing again.

But they had the right to. This is truly very bad, and it could affect both worlds. I don't know what to do. But everything was planned carefully and perfectly from a very long time. 'How could they have failed?' I thought to myself. They tried to fix it, my mistake at first, for hundreds of years and all of the plans failed within a year. The situation now is quite dangerous. I need a new plan. I thought it would be easy. But it seemed like I underestimated the importance of the Hikaris.

Lost in thoughts, I didn't notice my master has arrived. She sat next to me and cleared her throat to get everyone's attentions and said:

"Calm down, my friends! I'd known about the situation. Yes it is bad, but it is not the time to panic. We must work together. The last time, we disregarded everything and we were careless. We should have known better. That boy played such an important role yet we ignored it, even though we knew the truth. But now we have to take care of this threat and fix it, again. This time we have to be careful. It was not a game anymore. We are going to prepare for the worst and watch how everything goes to lead it when it went the wrong way. We MUST make sure this isn't going to fail again, understood?"

They nodded silently, knowing they could never argue with her. She was so wise, cautious and powerful. Every word she said is an order. Beside, she was always right so no one dared to retort her. Someone asked:

"My lady, what are we supposed to do?"

"We will find a way, my dear Ma'at. This is not the end yet."

Lady Ma'at nodded and fell silent.

"Well then, I guess we have to get to work. Has anyone have any idea yet? Ra? Horus? Thoth?" Horakhty continued.

They shook their heads. Those three were usually the wisest ones excluding Lady Horakhty, they've always had a plan. But in these times, they couldn't think of anything clearly.

"That's a shame." she said mockingly. Lord Ra and Lord Horus bowed their heads in shame while Lord Thoth glared at her. She glared back menacingly and he cowered in his seat.

I hesitantly raised my hand. I finally found a way, a loophole that I forgot when I made that regretful mistake, a loophole that I was glad that I forgot. It seemed like it is the only way for the Light and Darkness to work together again and win against the new foes. I have no doubt about the combined power of them. Working together, they are undefeated. I'm going to hate this, but it will be worth it.

"My lady, I think I have something to say."

I paced around my room, thinking about what happened at the meeting. They have agreed with my plan. I knew this was risky, but I had to try. I felt afraid, but determined and hopeful at the same time. Horus, being the god of Pharaohs, and I will be watching the pharaoh and keeping everything in the right place. I however got some more jobs to do because this was my idea. I sighed and sat down on the bed, maybe I needed to rest for a while. Suddenly, the door opened and a girl stepped in. She had light blue hair, almost white, she wore a simple white dress that reached her knees and her blue eyes were filled with concern. The girl asked me:

"Sister, are you feeling alright?"

I looked up and nodded to the girl:

"Yes Kisara I'm fine. I was just thinking."

Kisara sat down next to me and stared at me contently.

"It was the meeting right?" she asked.

I nodded slightly, not meeting my sister's gaze.

"You should rest for a while. You can start tomorrow. I don't know anything about it, but I will always support you, sister. I believe in your choice. But now, just get a sleep."

And with that she went out of the room, leaving me thinking about my sister's words.

I woke up early in the morning. After finishing all of my daily activities, I went to the secret room. Except for the gods, only I was allowed to enter this place. I got all of my necessities and left.

While pacing along the hallway, I saw a golden shining winged dragon standing there, waiting for me.

"I see you're still worried, young one." said Lord Ra.

"I know my lord, but we have no choice." I replied.

"You should have more faith in YOUR OWN plan. It will only be successful if you trust it. Do not fear nor worry. Just follow your heart. I will always be there when you need me. The sun will shine your path. Remember that young one." and he disappeared.

Ra was always my favorite god beside my master. He treated me very well along with Lord Osiris, Lord Obelisk, Lord Horus and some other gods. I suddenly felt myself smiling before quickly hid it and left while still shaking my head. I don't smile. It was not me.

Third person's POV:

After she walked of, a red snake-like dragon with huge bat wings and a muscles human-kind beast appeared. They looked toward the direction that she walked off and sighed.

"Will she succeed?" asked Osiris.

"I can not be sure about anything right now, Osiris. Even Lady Horakhty can't. But we will have a chance to win if we have faith in whatever we're doing. Ra was right, we should trust her. She knew what she is doing." Obelisk replied.

"Whatever she is doing, she should know that we will always be watching and helping her. Even the gods that hated her respected her for the plans she made. She was such a wise young lady." Osiris agreed.

"I just hope she will stop hiding her past. She could never forgive herself because of that mistake she made." sighed Obelisk.

They nodded to each other before disappeared just like Ra did.

"Good luck, the servant of Light." they said in unison.

**End of Chapter 1**

**Yeah I know that doesn't make any sense but you will understand soon, OK maybe not too soon. There will be many more mysteries.**

**Forgive for my poor grammar, spelling, or vocabularies. This is my first fic, after all. So review and tell me what you think or help me fix my mistakes (if I had any).**

**Just to let you know, this POV belongs to an OOC.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Afterlife

**Chapter 2: The Afterlife.**

Atemu's POV:

I stood at the balcony of my room. 'What a peaceful night.' I thought. 'Unlike me'. I thought. My mind was in turmoil. I felt lonely. I felt incomplete. I missed my friends, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, Otogi, Mai, and a lot of other people. Even Kaiba, the reincarnation of my cousin Seto. But the person I missed the most was Yugi, or as I used to call aibou. It felt so strange not to hear a voice in my head anymore. He was always there for me. He always thought about me. He pushed me out to be taken because of my failure in the duel with Rafael. He stopped me when I nearly killed Kaiba. He got me up when I was swallowed by the darkness of my heart. After the battle with the God of Orichalcos and the Ultimate Shadow Game, I thought I had changed. I thought I could return to my rightful place peacefully.

After the ceremonial duel, when I faced the doors to the afterlife, I felt my mind messed up. I know that I could never return once I step in. But I still believed that I could handle it. Now I regretted it. How wrong I was. Everything seemed fine to me the first two months. Then I realized that I was slowly darkened. I didn't remember any of the experiences I had learnt during the time with Yugi and his friends. I couldn't think of anything clearly. I tried to hide my pain so many times. But it still affected me. I was being crueler and darker. I couldn't help it. Usually when I was down, aibou always offered his hand to me and dragged me out of darkness. His soul was like a part of me right in the first place. That's why I felt incomplete, like my soul has been ripped off. Fortunately, I managed to rule quite well, even though I knew that will not last long. The people were starting to rebel about three months ago.

My only friends were the priests, especially Mahado and his student, Mana. Seto was nice, but he never showed it. Still, even being the friends they are, they usually treated me like a pharaoh, not a true friend.

I sighed deeply and suddenly heard a concerned voice behind me said:

"Pharaoh, are you alright?"

I turned to see Mahado kneeling beside me. I merely nodded and looked back at the night sky.

"Something is troubling you my pharaoh." he said.

"I'm fine Mahado. I just missed some old friends of mine." I replied, not bother to face him.

See, the six dead priests and my advisor, Shimon, were mysteriously brought back after my return. No one knew why. They just appeared suddenly right in the middle of the throne room. Even they were confused. Well, strange things do happen sometimes. Akhnadin had changed, perhaps it was because of the darkness had been removed from him by the Blue Eyes White Dragon. That's a relief. I didn't think Seto and I could rule over this land without them. So my cousin decided to give me my throne back. I refused at first, but they put their trust on me. What was I supposed to say?

Mahado nodded and turned to get out of the room. Everyone knew about my depression and sadness. However I never told them anything so they wouldn't try to ask, knowing that it's pointless. They only tried to comfort me, to no avail. I sighed before staring out at the night sky again.

**A/N: Hey guys. So this is chapter 2. Please review so I can get some ideas or fix my mistakes if necessary, OK? I will try and update the new chaps every weekend. However, I can't promise you about this. Homework always swallowed me.**

**Sorry for the short chapter. It was only about the life in the Afterlife. I know it's not true but if I let Atemu rest in peace then this story wouldn't have been written.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Rebellion

**Special thank to Youngbountygirl for your first review: Yes, there will be the descriptions later, I promise. I was planning on them after all.  
**

**Chapter 3: The Rebellion.**

Atemu's POV:

"_My other self!" Yugi shouted. I looked back and felt him pushed me out of the green circle that was taking my soul away._

_"Aibou" I turned around. My whole body and mind started to panic._

_"I believe in you, my other self." He said with a sad smile as his soul faded away._

_"AIBOU!"_

I woke up and found myself still shouting and grieving along with my screaming mind. The dream felt so real, as if all of that really happened a few minutes ago. A guard ran into my room with Seto and Mahado following him. Guess I screamed a little louder than necessary. Might as well take note to myself: Never, ever woke them up this early in the morning, believe it or not, no one wants to deal with a pissed off Seto, especially in these times, he was already very angry with me and my "stupid depressing mood", his words, not mine. Running a hand through my hair, I dismissed them as fast as possible. Who knows what would happen if my dear short-tempered cousin decides to throw a fit. I might have a chance not get out of it alive. That's not all. After that, he will be lecturing me for another two hours. The thought made me shudder, Seto sometimes is worse than Kaiba.

I got out of the bathroom and started to get dressed with my regular royal garments. I hate them. I loved my clothes back then in the Living World, they were much lighter than this crazy amount of expensive gold on me at the moment. Earrings, rings, crown, bracelets… what are they for? Useless.

I need to relax, to forget about that horrible dream. Why must it come to me again in those times? I have been in a bad mood already, what's the point in coming back and haunt me? To make me feel even worse? Maybe, as if my life needed more negative emotions. Oh yeah, that's just my life.

Perhaps I should go out for a while. It's been so long. I'm tired of being stuck in this palace where the meetings swallowed me to the depth of boredom. Seto suggested I go with them, for safety reasons. There are many that would trade anything to kill me, so this isn't a surprise. He may not like me, for his pride was too big to be on the second rank, his envy would never allow that, but he still respects me as the pharaoh, the ruler, and more loyal to me after the battle with Zorc. Despite everything, despite everyone saying that I was back to the pharaoh before, he believes that I'm a good ruler and would protect me at any cost. Therefore I put my complete trust on him and Mahado. When he told me that they're coming along, I knew that I'm losing. I could never argue with two of them at once. They were always concerned about me and there's no way they would let me go alone. I might as well let them go, it's not like it will hurt anything.

I traveled around the city. The people looked afraid of me, but I didn't care. I saw many poor families, but I just ignored them. My pride wouldn't let me do that. Pride. The same problem I had to face in the battle with the God of Orichalcos. This was exactly the old me, the pharaoh I was before being locked in the Millennium Puzzle and met Yugi.

A guard ran up to us, looking panic. He said between breaths:

"My…my Pharaoh. Forgive me for interrupting, but there is a rebellion at the suburb of the city. We are losing." I frowned. Another rebellion? This is the fifth one this month. What am I saying to my loyal priests now? They put their complete trust on me. I couldn't help myself though, I felt so depressed, so lonely, so discouraged, so…so hopeless.

"Gather the soldiers, we will take it down" I said and fought back the tears that were about to slip. The guard nodded, bowed and ran off.

We arrived at the battle shortly after that. Everything was in chaos. Burnt grounds, collapsed houses and dead bodies were everywhere. The rebels insulted, shouted, screamed, yelled at the soldiers constantly. I thought I would have been deaf right then and there. I glanced at my priests to see they were summoning their kas. I watched them silently, no one saw anything's wrong with that. About five months ago, when we battled a small army from the north, we found out that I couldn't summon my beasts or use my Shadow Magic anymore. Another mystery. That was the first time I tried to use it since my return, so I'm sure it had something to do with the Living World. That's one of the reasons of my hopelessness. They have always tried to cheer me up and assured me that it was okay. But how the hell was it okay knowing that I'm even more useless than my priests? I felt so ashamed.

I took out my sword, the way I used to fight. Fortunately I still knew how to sword-fighting and hand-to-hand combat, what's the point of being pharaoh if I left my soldiers and priests fight alone? The people's trust will fade even faster. Beside, I'm not a coward. I would never back up in anything, a flaw that made me lose the duel with Rafael. Can't say that I didn't regret it or feel guilty, but I'm growing dark, I have every right to fall for it. Yeah pretty funny, especially for a situation like this.

We hitched our horses and launched at the battle. By Ra I swear this is the most crowded rebellion I have ever fought. They were also skilled, tough, strong, and resentful. We battled for hours, though the enemy seemed to grow more crowded every single minute. Honestly, when will this madness end and leave us alone? My arms were starting to get sore, my face was sweating and I was panting. I could not fight anymore. This battle has started in the morning and now Ra has already set. I just wanted to scream to the top of my lungs, but was too exhausted to do that. And that's exactly how I did not notice a knife was thrown at my direction. None of my soldiers or priests noticed, either. I whirled around accidentally and saw it was about to stab me in the chest when an arrow flew up, sealed it to the ground and sliced it in halves at once. Seto and Mahado saw this and ran up to me while asking questions over and over again to see if I was okay. I had to assure them many times before they finally gave up questioning me to turn their attentions to the arrow. It was surprisingly made from pure gold. No way. Even I don't have something that expensive. We looked at the direction the arrow had flown from, the corner of a house, seeing nothing. Suddenly, a deafening roar was heard through the sky. A shining golden dragon flew down from heaven, along with two others, one red and another blue. The three gods.

They summoned their godly attacks and struck our enemies, making more than half of them died in an instant. The rebels stopped their fighting, fear and admiration crossed their faces as they stared at the enormous beasts above them and surrendered. A man in his late thirty, which I assumed was the leader, stepped forward and knelt down to the almighty creatures of power that has now landed in front of them.

"Oh almighty lords of Egypt, we deeply apologize for our actions against the living god, the son of Horus, and the problems that we had caused. Pharaoh was an excellent ruler, My Lords, but I'm afraid that he's changed. He could not even use his power anymore. We have waited patiently for his return, hoping this time he has become a better king, only to be disappointed so much to his ways of ruling. He is no different than the old one." He stated calmly, yet fear could be seen growing in his tone. I expected they would just roar again and leave, they are only beasts, which were my kas, after all. To my surprise, the God of Ra opened its mouth and said:

"Don't be worried, mortals. We are gods. We know everything. Yes, I hate to admit it, but it is true the pharaoh is growing dark again. However, we can still fix this. You should have faith in him, my people. If he is not worthy, then we must have punished or banished him from our land already. He is not truly cruel, I can assure you that. The gods are trying our best to help him, you have nothing to concern about." He spoke in an old, yet strong and wise voice. We were in complete shock. The gods have never spoken before. And more important: who summoned them?

The beasts glanced at me before vanishing, but not before saying one last thing: "We will see each other again soon, Pharaoh."

Third Person's POV:

As the pharaoh and his priests talked to the golden godly dragon, little did they know a figure was watching them intently from a corner between two stone houses that were damaged by Osiris' attack. His gaze was fixed on the young king. In his hand held a golden bow and behind his back was a bag full of sharp golden arrows, the same arrow that sliced the dagger. He wore a black cloak with a hood that covered his body and his hair, his face was hiding in the darkness, but his big, bright amethyst pair of eyes could be seen emitted purity, innocence, confidence, and most of all, light. He had seen everything, the battle, the talk between the pharaoh and Ra. He still watched silently until after they left, when all of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew pass him and pulled down his hood, revealing the face of a young, short boy that seemed to be around thirteen, yet his real age is almost seventeen. He had a special tri-colored hair style that looked exactly like the pharaoh's. His hair was black, spiky with blond bangs and red tips. He looked like a replica of the pharaoh with softer features. He wore a golden DiaDhanks on his right arm and a Duel Disk on his left. The face of the Duel King, Yugi Mutou was revealed in a split second by the lightning of Osiris' leaving before disappeared back into the shadows.

**A/N: Hey guys! So this is chapter 3. Sorry for the late update but I had some problems during the weekend.**

** R&R please!**


	4. Chapter 4: Trainings

Youngbountygirl: Since that question will be answered soon in another one or two chaps, I will not answer it now.

Disclaimer ( I forgot it the last times): I will never own Yu-gi-oh.

**Chapter 4: Training.**

Yugi's POV:

I walked silently down the bright, luxury hallway. Golden-framed pictures of the gods and their histories were everywhere. The crystal lamps hung on the ceiling slightly swung and shone brighter, the light followed every step I take. Every huge door was made from gold, but mostly silver and encrusted with different kinds of colorful gems. Large diamonds with the size of half a tennis ball seemed to pull, absorb and then reflect the beautiful, soft silver moonlight in the dark night sky. I had no doubt when she said that she is the servant for Goddess Horakhty. This place was full of light. Well it's not like I hate that. The light had always comforted me, supported me, obeyed me, like the shadows did to Atemu, only gentler and softer. I'm a Hikari, no one could blame me for my preferences for the light.

I scanned my surroundings. Despite the fact that I've stayed here for a while, I still couldn't stop being amazed by the elegance and beauty of this place. I've never believed her that this is a temple. I have seen and stayed in Kaiba's mansion before, and I'm pretty sure the money used to build it is less than half the money of this "temple". More like a palace. Atemu's palace couldn't compare to this, either. You could see large encrusted gems, smooth silk curtains, and expensive gold furniture everywhere. There was mostly silver, diamonds, platinum, and crystal. I guessed it's because they represent the light. By the name of Horakhty I had to admit that this was the best place I have ever been in. I never felt so much light, so much power, so much comfort. And now I learnt to speak like that. Oh my Horakhty! What in the name of Horakhty… stuffs like that. Habits do change. Perhaps I've been near her for so long.

I looked back and forth in annoyance. Everything about this temple is perfect except for one. The problem is that I couldn't remember the ways to my room or hers or anywhere I need to go to. She had showed me once when I first got here but I just couldn't remember, there were too many hallways, corridors, rooms, turns that can make me dizzy and have a terrible headache with mere thoughts. Oh how I hate this stupid endless maze. It only tried to kill me in every chance it had. Unfortunately, this time I didn't have anyone to show me the way. She was out to take care of business. Kisara wasn't here, either. Well, lucky me.

So now I just walked and turned at random corners and…continued walking in hope of finding the right room, even for the obvious fact that every room looked the same. This was like a hopeless game. Very funny. This is why I was called the King of Games.

I frantically tried to look for my room. The training was going to start soon and I know for a fact that she will definitely not appreciate my lateness. She wasn't someone you would want to mess with. The result will be terribly worse than offend Kaiba. Although she seemed to have a soft spot on me, I'd still rather be there on time, just to prevent the worst.

I was so desperate not to notice a figure of a girl was rushing at the opposite direction. We bumped to each other and fell flat on the floor. I rubbed my sore butt tiredly while looking up and then beamed happily.

"Kisara, thanks goodness!" I exclaimed and got up as quickly as I could. "I need someone to lead the way in this god forsaken maze, I got lessons with your sister."

Kisara stood just as quickly. Her blue eyes showed great relief but then widened as if she remembered something important and became panic.

"Yugi! There you are! I was worried that something might have happened to you. Where have you been?" she shouted questions after questions constantly at my face. I never thought Kisara could be like this, she was always calm, so I answered her instantly.

"Everything's fine, Kisara. I went to see Atemu today. I'm sorry I'm late but seriously, how large this crazy maze could be?" I said the last part with annoyance.

"Well sorry about that. However, it was sister who designed this place. I don't have a say in this." she replied irritably. I sighed heavily.

"Okay I'm sorry. It's just that I'm not in a good mood today, you know, this temple had always irritated me. Oh and by the way, has your sister arrived? I've got some questions to ask her." she panicked again.

"Oh my gods. I totally forgot. Yes, sister's arrived and is waiting for you, Yugi. You have to go before she gets mad and decides to 'modify' this place." my face almost matched her.

"Holy Horakhty! Then what are we waiting for? We've wasted enough time already." I began to run but stopped in mid-track. "Uh could you lead the way? Because I didn't really remember all of them. If I did then I would have been there right now." I turned to her with a blush. Why can't I remember anything? This is so embarrassing. Kisara gave a quick nod and motioned to me to follow her.

It took us about ten minutes to reach her room. I thanked Kisara, waved to her as she disappeared into her room before putting my hand on the cold golden handles of the pair of huge doors. I took a deep breath and opened the door, hoping that she is in a good mood at the moment. I strode silently into her massive room. She was sitting quietly on her light-reflecting-crystal throne. The Millennium Eye on it was glowing brightly, practically saying that she was having strong emotions. I breathed in sharply, wondering what she was feeling. Anger? Irritation? Annoyance? If so, then I was surely doomed. Hesitantly, I closed the door behind me and took a few steps forward. She didn't do anything to acknowledge me and I didn't dare doing anything to get her attention, either. I merely stood there nervously while kept glancing at her. Finally, she said firmly, not taking her eyes off the book she was reading:

"You're late." I froze and stopped tapping my feet on the marble floor beneath. I stared at her worriedly. I could feel my blood ran cold and I shivered in fear. I've heard of her wrath before, and I was sure that I didn't want to taste it now. After a few minutes, she closed her book and looked up at me, her eyes bored into mine. She spoke in a firm yet soft tone:

"I can tell that you're afraid of me. Don't worry though. I'll let it go this time, just don't make it a habit." she paused, seeing I nodded immediately, before continued. "So how was your trip? Did you see Atemu?" I nodded again.

"You want to ask me something?" she asked when I shifted hesitantly. She always had ways to read my mind.

"Well…yes. It involves the priests…Atemu's priests." I stuttered as she raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you stuttering? Is something wrong?" I shook my head.

"No, nothing's wrong. But I know you hate questions and curiosity, so you don't have to…" she cut me off shortly.

"That's alright. It's true there are some questions that I can not answer just yet. But I know what you are asking and I think it's fine for you to know. You want to know why the dead priests like Mahado or Isis or Shimon from the battle with Zorc were there, right?" I relaxed a little, but then frowned.

"Yes, but how did you know? You've got something to do with this, haven't you? I knew that I wasn't hallucinating." I said. She gave me a cold laugh. I didn't flinch. If anyone knows her enough they would have seen that as a friendly gesture. I didn't expect a word from her, much less laughing. She rarely had expressions. I swear she was unreadable, masking her feelings and emotions better than Kaiba.

"You got it right. I did have something to do with it, or rather, we did have something to do with it." she returned to that blank expression again.

"What!? But I thought that it is forbidden to bring the deaths back to life? You said so yourself! And the gods really agreed to this!?

"It wasn't a big deal!" she snapped right back angrily. "Laws are laws! But we could always make exceptions if it was necessary. Atemu couldn't have handled all of this on his own, we had to help him, resurrect some people won't hurt." I faltered and she sighed.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you. I was kind of stressed today and couldn't stop myself." I merely nodded. She never raised her voice with me before. She must have had some troubles with business. Running a company was never easy. I've learnt quite a bit about that with Kaiba.

"So we're coming to lessons or not?" I finally had the dare to ask after a long silence. She didn't say anything, just stood up, put her book back on the shelf and strode out of the room, motioned me to follow. I did.

We took long steps in awkward silence when she suddenly stopped.

"Yugi…Do you…miss Atemu?" she asked, her voice seemed broken. I was surprised at the unexpected question.

"Of…of course I do, Ayame. Why wouldn't I? We were and are still best friends, despite the so much different timelines. We had a strong bond that no one had ever been able to break. We are halves of a whole. We shared the same mind, same soul, same wills. Even now, even if he is Pharaoh Atemu, not that "my other self" I've known anymore, I'm sure we still feel that connection, through times, through space. It's the meaning of friendship, Ayame." she listened to me intently until I finished. She was quiet. But I could see a sad smile on her face and was confused. There were so many things I can't explain about her, but decided not to push it. She continued walking again and I followed closed behind her. We didn't say anything to each other again.

Ayame's POV:

We arrived at the training room a few moments later. The door opened as soon as it felt my presence near. We entered the training room and it automatically slammed shut. I turned to Yugi.

"Now Yugi, I believe you've almost finished all of your lessons. I had to admit that you're a fast learner." I praised and he blushed. "Therefore I believe this will be our last training. Tomorrow I will test you in the morning and then you can go see Atemu. I'll let you stay there if you want." he beamed excitedly, obviously happy. I smiled mentally. "Then let us get this soon over with."

We seated at the golden table on the left of the room. I gave him a blindfold. He looked at it then me and then sighed annoyingly but obediently put it on.

"Remind me why do we have to do this again?" I chuckled blankly.

"Because, to become a true, great duelist, you have to learn to merge your soul with your cards. They are your sword, your honor, your heart, your soul. You will be able to recognize them, hear them, I'm positive about that." he sighed again. "Fine."

I took out a box and set the forty Duel Monsters cards on the table. Yugi slowly took the first one.

"Black Magician!" he exclaimed cheerfully right at that moment he touched it. I said nothing, which meant that was correct and encouraged him to take the second card.

"Fusion." Correct. "Resurrection of the death." Correct. "Osiris the Heaven God Dragon" Again. "Double spell" Perfect. And it continued like that. Now he will be able to know what cards he is holding without his sight. I forced him to practice with five different decks, much to his dislike, I had to make sure. But it didn't take long, only about an hour, he could sense the card's soul almost immediately. Well I guess I didn't have anything to worry about anymore.

"Okay Yugi you can take the blindfold off now." he obeyed.

"You did great. I think I'll let you pass this part. Now let us see how you improved your battling skill." he groaned. I ignored it. "Go get your Sais. I commanded, pointing across the room at a large glass cupboard with different kinds of weapons in it. He ran to it, opened and took out a pair of Sais. I summoned my own ones out of nowhere and started attacking him suddenly.

Yugi didn't falter like the last time. Good, finally he would heed my words: never let your guards down at any cost, always ready for a surprised attack. I slashed and slashed. He managed to block all of them, except for some small cuts and couldn't fight back. He tried to stab and made me trip, but I jumped and block it with my left Sais. Looks like he defends better than attacks, it's no surprise to a Hikari like him. They have their Yamis were to battle, and they would protect them by their strong barriers and defensive skills. We battled for hours before he got tired and couldn't continue any further.

"A…Ayame…I think we should…stop here…I don't know if I…if I can breath anymore." he panted. I smiled slightly.

"Very well then. You can go back to your room and rest. I have seen what you did this morning at the rebellion…" his eyes widened. "I was quite impressed. You used your bow and the dagger truly skillfully that could have rivaled me. Therefore, I shall not force you to practice those parts. Go get some rest, you deserve it." he grinned before running out of the room.

Once I was sure that he was in his room so he wouldn't be able to hear me anymore, I glanced everywhere to make sure no one was here, either. Kisara has gone to bed and the gods were nowhere in sight. I dropped to my knees and started sobbing.

**A/N: Hi guys. So this is chapter 4. I'm sorry for the late update, but you can see this is a long chapter and I've had some problems writing it. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**R&R please!**

**TheWingedSunDragonofRa13402**


	5. Chapter 5: Friends, a Rival, and an old

** Chapter 5: Friends, Rival, and an old Enemy**

Ayame's POV:

"For the last time, I said no." I said firmly, eyes cold. The man cringed, but continued to argue.

"But Lady Sennen, please consider this. It will be convenient for both our corporations, the benefit will rise. We are two of the most powerful corporations in the world. Besides, my corporation needs help. If we…" I stood up furiously, my right fist slammed hard on the desk, while my eyes turned blood-red and on flames.

"I said NO, and I definitely meant NO, Mr. Kazeki! You do realize that I had a short temper, yet you tried to convince me to work with that damn company of yours. Never in this life or the next one will I do such a thing!". 'If I even have a next life', I thought bitterly. "The Kazeki Corp. is falling, that I know, and I'm sure if we work together it will still be a failure because of that corrupted daughter of yours. Do you even know how much money she owes me for her fun and entertainment? Do you even read the newspaper? You're lucky that I never counted on the debts of your daughter, because if I did, your f*cking corporation would collapse even faster and I know for a fact that it wouldn't have enough money to pay for them. If you still want to continue about this matter, I'll make sure that tomorrow people will see a huge headlines 'The Kazeki Corp. went bankrupt in one night' on top of the newspaper, understand that, B*STARD?!" he backed away from me, knowing not to push the matter further. I could feel that he was trying to gather his courage in vain.

"You have no right to talk to me like that!" he snapped back at me. I looked at him so fiercely that he stepped back even more.

"This is my corporation, Kazeki. I have every right here. If you don't get out this instant, I'll have you arrested for trespassing. Hell, I can throw anyone in jail without reasons, I have enough power to take this world in one day, but why would I need to do that? I have better things to do. And you asked me why wouldn't I work with your company? Do I have to?" I said in a menacing tone. He didn't reply.

"Get out, you're testing my patience." I said. He didn't even need to be told twice before running out of my office and shutting the door behind him. I sighed and slumped back in my black leather chair with my fingers massaging my temples. I swear sometimes business could drive me insane. I wasn't one fit for business and stuffs like this, being the greatest goddess' apprentice of Ancient Egypt. Fate must hate me. Dealing with this corporation wouldn't be so bad, but those stupid men kept harassing me. Or trying to get me work with their company or trying to get me in bed with them. Oh how I hate my looks, but you could never refuse a god's or goddess' blessing, so this is the consequences from Hathor.

The light of the intercom on my desk suddenly went on and I pressed the button. Whoever called me should have a damn good reason since no one dared to disturb me for unimportant things.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked annoyingly.

"Lady Sennen, I'm so sorry for disturbing you at those times, but some people are here to see you. They know about your secrets and demanded to see you immediately." Natalie's, my secretary, voice said through the other line.

I frowned. My secrets, Ancient Egypt, the gods, Atemu and stuffs…they know them?

"Who are they?" I asked.

"I think their names are Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto, Anzu Mazaki, Ryou Bakura and Mr. Kaiba from the Kaiba Corporation, my lady." she said. I know, this kind of addressing people is quite old and not suitable for this century anymore, but I still loved it, considered the fact that I lived through thousands of years with the gods from Ancient Egypt. Natalie knew about this so she's always addressed me like this.

"Send them in. I don't mind them being here. And next time, if I don't have a meeting or appointment at the time they come, just let them in if they say they need to talk to me." I said.

"Very well then my lady." and the light of the intercom went off.

I rose from my seat, walked round the desk towards the crimson couches. I sat down on one of them and waited. About a minute later, just like I expected, Katsuya came barging in my office with the door slammed open, followed by his gang and a quite pissed off Seto Kaiba. I leaned on the cushions slightly and raised an eyebrow at them.

"I swear I was about to destroy this place if I didn't get here sooner, Sennen. Why the hell did anyone even let you design this place? Is this a corporation or a maze?!" he shouted in my face, but I did not flinch. Instead I only eyed him curiously.

"First, Mr. Katsuya, they let me design this place because I was the one who paid for it. And second, I'd appreciate if you don't come barging in my office, demanding answers, and shouting in my face like a maniac. If you can't stand this then get out." I said sternly. He sighed.

"Fine, I'm sorry, I was just annoyed that's all." I nodded and motioned to the opposite couch. They went to it and all settled down.

"Now, I believe we have something to discuss. You all came here for Yugi, true?" they looked surprised, but nodded.

"Well, then I believe that he hasn't told you yet?" their eyes widened. They shook their heads. I sighed.

"Okay, definitely he forgot to tell you out of excitement. His grandpa is on a dig in Egypt, so it shouldn't be a problem. But I believe you all have the rights to know where he is." I sipped my tea while Katsuya stood up furiously.

"You know where he is" I nodded, still sipping. "And you didn't bother to tell us. We were worried sick for days." I glared at him and he flinched.

"I was not the one who was responsible for that, Katsuya. It was Yugi's. If he forgot to tell you, that wasn't my problem. Now sit down." he obeyed.

"Since I assumed you would want to know. Yugi is at my place, the Realm of the Gods. He's going to see Atemu today." they were stunned. And then…chaos.

"What! How is that possible?!" Mazaki.

"What are you talking about?" Hiroto.

"I thought the door between two worlds was sealed forever." Ryou Bakura.

I held my hand my left hand up to motion them to silent. They did.

"Now, before you all started shouting and questioning again, I would like to answer all of that at once. No more questions." they nodded quietly.

"First, yes, I know that that door, the door of Wedju, where they dueled the last time, has been sealed forever. But I didn't say that he went there through that door. I got him through the door to the gods' place where I was and am currently living. I trained and taught him to be a warrior, to be confident, to be strong. Today, he will be able to finish the lessons and I'll let him go to Atemu. I know he's been wanting to visit him."

"But why didn't you tell us? We are a team and we always work together. If he goes there then we should be there with him, too." the blond, Katsuya, said. I sighed.

"One, it's a dangerous time for you to be there. Atemu's people are rebelling against him continually. Two, I don't have enough power to bring all of you there by myself, and I'm pretty damn sure I will get quite a LOT of lecturing from the gods if I bring this matter up." I said.

"What do you mean the gods? We thought they're only monsters." Kaiba cut in.

"That will be explained later. Now back to topic. Like I said, I can't handle all of you staying there. There is a way, however it's not entirely perfect. I will use all of my magic objects and magic books to increase my power level. But even so I can only bring you there for five days and only one of you can stay with Yugi after that. That's my limit." they nodded and I continued. "So which of you is going to stay?" I asked. They looked at each other, obviously it's quite a difficult choice to make. I feel a little bad now. What am I thinking? Stop this stupid emotions thing. I do not have emotions. I do not have feelings.

I mentally shook off those thoughts and feelings, this isn't the time for this. I scanned the teens in front me. After a few moments of silence, I made my choice.

"Mr. Kaiba, you will be staying." all heads snapped up, their eyes widened in disbelief.

"You can't be serious. Why would you choose this arrogant jerk over one of us? He and Yugi are rivals, he would never help him like we would." Katsuya pointed out.

"Yeah. He never believed in friendship. He never cared for anyone except for his brother Mokuba." Mazaki added.

Kaiba stayed silent the whole time while staring into space. I know he heard my decision, but decided not to say anything. Oh yeah, I know he wanted to go. I saw it in his mind.

"That's my final decision. If you don't like it then leave and stay home for the rest of his trip." I said sternly. They continued to argue.

"But I'm sure Kaiba wouldn't like it, either. Right moneybags?". We glanced at his seat, he was already gone. I stood up and walked back to my working desk.

"I have decided. And I'm not going to change my mind so deal with it. You can go with Yugi five days or you won't go at all. What do you choose?" I said, picking up my phone.

"Okay, okay. You're impossible. We'll go." I nodded then dialed.

"Natalie's speaking."

"Natalie, I need you to set up a flight to Egypt for me in one day."

"But Lady Ayame, you'd just returned from there."

"Do not question me. Just do it."

"Alright my lady. As you wish."

I hung up the phone and sighed. I don't know how many times I have sighed today.

"Meet me at Domino Airport at six p.m tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Very well then."

"Fine."

"Okay."

I watched them left before turning back to my work.

* * *

I stepped in the black limo that had the symbol of the Millennium Eye, the symbol of my company, on it.

"To the headquarters of Kaiba Corporation." I told the driver. With that we took off. 'I'm going to have a talk with him.' I thought.

* * *

I walked in my office and locked the door behind me. It was midnight. I didn't bother to turn as a voice spoke.

"I have decided." this time I did.

"And what would your decision be, oh my almighty Thief King?" I replied with a cold tone.

Shadows loomed over me but I wasn't afraid. They stayed around me but never dared to touch me. A man with white hair and amber eyes dressed in a red robe stepped out from them.

"I accepted your offer." he scowled. I smirked silently inside.

**Hey guys. I'm very very veeery sorry for not updating in such a long time. But I had my final exams to take care of. I hope you didn't think that I abandoned this story. In the future, maybe, but definitely not now, and I don't plan to at the moment, I have lots of ideas.**

**Anyway, I want to ask you a few things:**

**1) How do you think Yugi and his friends are going to meet Atemu again? I want to make it a little funny. You can say I'm quite a sarcastic person.**

**2) A friend of mine had suggested a little romance in this story. I didn't plan it before, but I thought it would be a great idea. So which pairings would you like me to do? Please review and tell me. But please read my profile first to make sure you don't suggest my hated pairings. Even if you threaten to murder me, I would never do those shippings. Oh and please don't choose my OCC. I had a plan for her already.**


	6. Chapter 6: A Thief King's Past

**Youngbountygirl: **I can't understand your review.

**zquest: **I will, don't worry. However I would appreciate it if you help me with some ideas I asked for in the fifth chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh.

**_A/N: This chapter is just an extra chapter I write for fun. It contains very little information, so you don't have to read it carefully if you don't like. It's not really important._**

**_Disclaimer: You already know this is not mine, right? I make no money out of this, only the...whoever owned Yugioh does._**

**Chapter 6: A Thief King's Past**

Bakura's POV: (unbelievable)

I grunted loudly as I sat down on the wooden chair. Why did I agree to that deal again? I hate the Pharaoh and his gang for a passion. His father destroyed my village, took away my home, my people, my family, my everything. No not his father, his uncle, the bastard priest Akhnadin did. I'd sworn to get my revenge on the Pharaoh. So why did I agree to help his friends?

_ But why? It's not his fault everything was taken from you. If anything, you should be taking revenge on his uncle, not him._ I heard a voice echoed in my mind. I was silent. What it said was true. Why? Why did I take all of my anger on him? I know very well that it wasn't his fault. Yet, I blamed him for what happened to me. I still hated him for what he didn't do, what he didn't even know about.

Now that I think about it. I was not like this before. I still remembered my old self, sweet, loving and caring. Yeah like anyone would believe that, but it's the truth. I'm not always like this. The tragedy of my village was what changed me into the psycho, heartless thief I am now. I started to become resentful. I learnt to do anything to survive, and I swore that I would avenge my family. I could do nothing to Akhnamkhanen since he died too soon. That's why I wanted to make his son suffer. He had to pay for his actions, pay for my people's deaths. I later found out the one that should be responsible for that was Akhnadin, but I couldn't stop myself anymore. I let my anger, my hatred and my greed blind me. After my defeat, I began to regret it. I imagined people live true lives while I was stuck in the Shadow Realm. I missed my life before. After that disaster, I was never myself anymore. I've gone out there and desperately sought for my blind revenge. I never realized it before, every time I fought, every time I cursed the damned Pharaoh, every time I plotted against him, every time I tried to kill him, my anger, my hatred would only increase. I were never happy and would never be happy. The Pharaoh dead or not. I regretted everything I did. I've never had a real life to live.

**Flashback:**

_ A boy with long white hair sat at the edge of the big river, his bare feet in the warm water. He turned as a light brown haired woman came into view while holding a basket of fruits. The boy's face lit up. He ran towards the woman's now open arms. He hugged her tightly, giggling. She smiled at him._

_"What's my little boy doing out here alone?" She asked the boy. Her voice was soft and musical._

_"I'm watching the fish. They're very pretty, right Mama?" The boy said and she nodded. The woman put him down and reached into the basket for some grapes and handed them to him. She only smiled as she watched him eat._

_"I have to go back now, Bakura. You could stay if you want. But be back by sunset, okay?" The boy nodded._

* * *

_"Mama! Look! I found this on the ground near the river." The same boy as before came running into the small but warm house, in his hand was a silver cartouche._

_"It's beautiful, honey. It must belong to a noble or someone very rich." She said._

_"Can I keep it?" The boy asked eagerly._

_"Hmm. I suppose you can, but don't show it to so many people. We never know their greed."_

_"Okay!" The boy beamed happily._

_"Hey Bakura, you want to go play with us?" Another boy yelled to him from the nearby house._

_"Sure!" He nodded and ran to his friend before they both headed outside the village._

* * *

_ He was sleeping soundly in the garden when a white haired man ran in and tried to shake him awake. He roused slowly from his sleep._

_"What is it, Papa?" He asked groggily._

_"Bakura, you need to get up now!" His father's voice was stern and his face showed seriousness._

_"But why?" He asked, confused._

_"We have very little time. I can't explain. You must hide now! Do NOT show up under any circumstance or anything happens with us, you got it?" He just nodded, not understanding what was happening._

_"Bakura, whatever happens, remember that we always love you. Now, promise me that you'll be fine."_

_"I…I promise."_

_"Good. Now go and hide as well as possible."_

* * *

_ The boy whimpered in fear at the corner of the underground wall as he watched the villagers and his family, his friends, slowly killed by the guards. No one seemed to notice him._

_ He couldn't watch this anymore. He felt useless. He wanted to come barging in there and stop them, but he knew it would change nothing. His father had told that whatever happens, he must hide. And he had promised him that, he could let him down. So the poor boy had no other way but to escape that hell in front of him. He quietly exited the place, careful not to make any noise._

_ Once outside, he sat down in a dark corner and cried his eyes out. He was completely alone. No one other than him had survived. He cried till nightfall, when he didn't have a shed of tears left anymore. His memory was fuzzy at that time. He could only remember a name being repeated over and over again between his sobs of despair: Atena._

* * *

I frowned in annoyance. Who is Atena? Why do I have a feeling that I knew her? I feel…like a part of my memory has been wiped away, leaving a big hole in it. Whenever I try to search for the person of that name in my head, it hurts so much. I couldn't find anything. I was sure that Ayame knew her. I saw her paled slightly through her stoic face when I talked about that name. Besides, she didn't even deny it, and just refused to tell me.

No, Ayame knew more than that. She had many secrets up her sleeves, not only about me, but the Pharaoh and his stupid Hikari as well. Hell, maybe even about his 'Friendship Addicted' gang. She seemed to be that type of person who knows everything. Sometimes I really thought she truly knows everything, but people like that don't exist.

**A/N: Hi guys. I know this is a boring chapter, and I also know that I was a bit late, wasn't I? I was so lazy, after all the crazy tests you know. I will try my best to be on time. R&R please!**


	7. Chapter 7: Companions and Kaiba

**Youngbountygirl: **Your second guess is right, except that she is just adopted sister. However, it's a LOT more complicated than that. It is why Atemu didn't remember anything about her. You will have to wait for a _long_ time before all secrets could be revealed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh. All the ideas written here are fictional and don't have any relation to real life scenario.

**Chapter 7: Companions and Kaiba**

Third Person's POV:

Yugi got up groggily from the soft, warm bed feeling the soreness all over his body (Dirty minds get out! It's not like that!). Last night he'd had to train swordsmanship, or rather Sais fighting, archery, daggers fighting, and hand-to-hand combat. For gods' sake, why did he have to learn how to mask his emotions, too? It's not like he wanted to be a stone like her. However, he had to really admit that it came to useful sometimes. Now he doesn't show fear or shyness anymore. Those things would only make him an idiot in front of everyone.

He got dressed and left the room to head to the only place that he could remember the directions of: the dining hall. His legs and back hurt. Who knows a female could be that strong? For the love of Ra, she gave him quite a beating. Yugi laughed quietly before he noticed something.

'Lovely. I forgot my cloak.' Yugi was halfway to his destination and he was too lazy to head back so he continued. He could go get it later.

'I wonder if Bakura's decided to take our offer or not' He thought sadly. This will be a perfect chance for the thief to fix his life and guide it the right way. There is a huge chance that he will refuse, considering the fact that they were his most hated enemies. Well they could always hope.

When Yugi arrived at the dining hall, he got the surprise of my life.

His friends, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, Bakura, and even Kaiba were there, sitting and eating like nothing happened. The tri-colored haired teen managed to get his emotions under control so that he wouldn't start screaming the crap out of himself. This is definitely one of the situations the lessons came to usefulness.

They saw him entered, waved to him and motioned for him to go sit with them. He did, a little hesitant as he thought that maybe, just maybe he was seeing things. Perhaps if only the gang was here, he would have believed it easier, but Kaiba? There was no way he is here. The CEO hates their guts, and especially 'magical things'.

He sat at the second chair on the left, opposite Kisara and next to Ayame, who was sitting at the head of the golden table like usual. Jounouchi and Honda patted him on the back and they started to yell a bunch of questions at him, while Kaiba just sat there and ate like nothing was happening.

It took Yugi about half a f*cking hour to calm them down.

"Yug', why didn't you tell us where you are?" Jounouchi asked.

"I'm sorry to worry you. I forgot." Yugi sighed.

"It's okay buddy. I have a terrible memory too. Next time just try to remember, alright?" He nodded and began to eat.

"Man! This is unbelievably delicious! I've never tasted these types of food before!" Honda exclaimed while Jounouchi nodded in agreement. Yugi laughed at their childishness.

"Yugi." He turned to see that Kaiba's finished his breakfast and was staring at him intently.

"Yes, is there something wrong Kaiba?" He asked.

"I need to talk to you in private." He didn't even wait for the shorter teen to reply before he left the room in silence.

"What's with Moneybags? Thinking you would listen if he asks for something with that naturally rude attitude? Who does he think he is? King of the world?"

"Jounouchi, come on. You know so well that Kaiba's like that all the time. It didn't bother me." Yugi said as he stood up and followed the tall CEO outside the room.

_Inside Yugi's chamber:_

"So what do you want to talk about, Kaiba?"

"Yugi, why did you help me?" Kaiba asked in a whisper.

Yugi wasn't very surprised at this question.

"I guess it was because of my personality. I'd always wanted to help people, rivals, enemies, or friends…I don't care very much." Yugi replied casually.

"But how did you manage to get so much money? That debt of my company wasn't very small, you know."

"Duel Monster and a few other games' tournaments. I also wrote a successful series of books based on my adventure with my friends and Atemu. As soon as I heard from your brother that your company was indebted and that you were having a difficult time, I immediately searched for every possible ways to get money. I even stole half of the profits of my grandpa's game shop." He said guiltily. They were silent for a long time before Kaiba spoke again.

"Then I would like to thank you." His voice was so small that Yugi barely heard him.

"What?" The Duel King asked, stunned.

"You want to thank you, Yugi."

"Okay, so now I'm starting to have hallucinations." Kaiba shook his head.

"No, Yugi. You know that I'm not always like this. I was very different before…before we were adopted by that monster. The life I'd gotten and the battles from business are what made me the one I am now. The reason why Mokuba and I were so closed was because we are family. I've grown up with him and endured every pain our adopted father brought to us together. After the ways I treated him, his trust and love for me never faded. That's how I managed to take the company at the last moment. I considered him the only friend and family I have. All the years of suffering have told not to trust anyone. So I kept distance with everyone except for my brother. I didn't want to trust. I didn't want anyone to be closed to me. I thought that if I am alone, no one will ever hurt me again; that _he _could hurt me before because of the weakling I was. I thought that if I opened up with someone, they would only hurt me in the end.

But you showed me kindness, Yugi, the only thing that no one has ever showed me before considering the arrogant jerk I was. You tried to befriend me, even though I was your rival, your enemy. I harmed your grandfather, I insulted you at DuelistKingdom. I called you a weakling when in truth, I was always the weakling. You helped me when you didn't have to, you felt sympathetic for me after you heard about my past when people only felt hatred. I never really accepted yours or anyone's sympathy. They hated me for that, but never you. You changed Mokuba, Yugi. And now, you changed me."

They were silent for a long moment before Yugi had the nerve to speak again.

"So why would you decide to tell this to me now?" Kaiba sighed.

"Admitting all this stuff was never easy, Yugi. But I don't want to be the weakling anymore. Hiding it will only make it worse. That woman convinced me that."

"That woman? You mean, Ayame?" The CEO nodded.

"She is insightful. As you can see, she is also a master of masking her emotions and feelings. I bet her past has even more tragedy than mine. She mentioned a mistake, a mistake that she will never forgive herself for, but that's all I know. She is quite a mysterious person.

Anyway, we had a talk yesterday. She decided that I would be the one who will be staying. She knew that I wouldn't protest. She came to my office and confronted me about everything. As usual, I tried to deny it. But she was smart. I could feel her eyes pierced into my soul, my mind. There is no hiding with her. I knew I'd lost. What is the point in hiding? Even when not a single word was spoken, I had no doubt she knew everything. She just wanted me to admit it. And I did.

You had no idea how relieved it was. I felt like every burden of life had been washed away. Then I realized it truly wasn't so bad like I've always thought. She encouraged me to speak out the truth to you, like I'd just done." The shorter duelist smiled.

"So does that mean we can be friends now?" Kaiba stood up and began to walk out of the room, but not without a small glance back.

"Maybe. I'm still not very sure about this. Perhaps we can try, however, just between us, I definitely don't want to encounter that geek squad of yours yet." With that he left.

* * *

"So Yug', what did Mr. I'm-the-best want with you?" Jounouchi asked.

"Uhm, Jounouchi, I'm sorry but I don't think he would appreciate me babbling about his private matters. I have to respect him whether you like him or not."

"Well okay if you say so."

Just then, two people stepped in. Everyone in the dining room started to stand up except for Yugi, for Ayame had left, and Kaiba had gone off somewhere. Yugi said with a mouth full of bread and a plum in his left hand.

"Relax, guys. They mean no harm."

"How can you say that?! They tried to kill us many times!" Anzu screeched.

"I know. That's why they're here. To redeem themselves, Anzu. Ayame and I made a deal with them. If they help us and aid Atemu with the rebellions happening in his reign at the moment, we will let them start over and have a normal life. If they don't, they return to the Shadow Realm and rot in there for eternity. However, I suggest you not to go too near them, especially Marik. You see, his mind isn't very stable from the long time staying in there." They nodded, but still looked at the two warily. The former Thief King and Tomb Keeper glared at them before sitting down to eat while keeping distant as possible. Yugi sighed.

"This is going to be hard."

* * *

**R&R please!**

**Oh and also, I think I'll let you know the eighth chapter's name: Journey through the Shadow Realm.**


	8. Chapter 8: Journey through the Shadow Re

**Fragments of Imagination: I know. I'm curious too. I'm working on it.**

**Youngbountygirl: Agreed, but I didn't know how to write it rightly. They're the only things that came on my mind. Beside, I'm new here. Thank you for you reviews every chapter though, I appreciated them very much.**

** Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Yugioh.**

**Chapter 8: Journey through the Shadow Realm**

After a tensed breakfast, Ayame and Kaiba came back.

"Before you go, I just want to make sure that you were all ready to this. All you're getting yourself into is dangers. So don't tell me that I didn't warn you, because once you stepped in, there is no way out, like a one-way trip." Ayame paused. "However, I'm not going to go on and discourage you any further. I don't want to say this, but you can do this. I was never one to believe in things like friendships or...whatever, but that doesn't mean you should not. I did not because they never worked out for me. For you, though,..." She gazed intently into their eyes. "See how many times your friendships had saved you. I guess things just work in different ways."

Before anyone could reply, she continued.

"So, anyway, I had everything ready for your trip. Here." Ayame pulled something from under her feet and tossed one to each of them, except for Yugi.

"Food, drinks, Duel Disks, and all you will need for this journey." She said simply.

"Man! This is so cool, Honda! Just look at the gold." Jounouchi exclaimed. Ayame glanced fiercely at them.

"The gold is for necessities only. Do NOT waste them for useless stuffs!" They sighed.

"Okay, understood. Gosh, you're so strict." Said person ignored that comment.

"For Kaiba..." She tossed him something golden, and they gasped at the sight of the Millennium Rod. And in the first time of his whole life, Kaiba said nothing about that.

"They were...they were sealed away! How did you...?"

"Why, dig them on from that stupid hole, of course. No arguments, that won't work." She added the second sentence instantly.

"Yugi already had all the stuffs he needed, so I guess this is farewell then." The oldest of them continued simply then vanished in a pure white light, leaving the unexperienced teens of them gasping in shock.

* * *

The sky was dark and had swirling vortexes with no suns. Strange, giant creatures could be seen everywhere. The place had a chilling feeling that could send the most ferocious warriors and mercenaries to insanity. Everything was dark and foggy so it was hard to see anything.

"Okay, seriously, isn't there any other way?"

"No, Jounouchi, I'd told you severe times that this is the ONLY way! So please be quiet and stop asking!"

"You heard Yugi, dog. Stop tattling."

"Shut up! Who do you call a dog?"

"SILENCE!" Both settled down at Yugi's outburst and dared not to say a thing. Not only them, but the whole gang and the two psychos.

"Good, I'm glad it's settled. This is one of the most dangerous worlds, not a children playground! If you want to argue, wait until we get to the Mortal World first or go back." With that, he turned and continued walking.

"Man, what's happened to him?" Jounouchi wondered out loud.

"He is stressed. You will find out how much danger this place has. He's only trying to protect you." Bakura said bluntly and he and Marik followed Yugi.

* * *

They soon came to a deep creepy forest with leafless muddy trees. The lines of trees were so thick you couldn't see a thing. Then suddenly a loud sound of giant footsteps echoed through the whole place. Smaller creatures squeaked and roared in fear and fled immediately.

A monster started to rise from the trees and roared. They weren't sure how, seeing that it had no head. The sound just came out, making the whole place shake violently. It looked like human, but with a gray large scaly tail and metal arms covered with blood. Despite its huge body, it seemed to move as fast as lightning.

"Holy-"

"And it starts..." They heard Yugi mumbled and took out a golden brooch with different types of jewels on it.

"We're dead."

"No we aren't" Yugi grinned at them.

"Okay we're truly dead."

* * *

"See? I told we're not dead...yet. That is...if we don't encounter Shadow Hounds. But I doubt it."

"Shadow Hounds?"

"I'll tell you everything later. I don't want to tell it again when Atemu asks." Yugi's clueless friends nodded. Nothing seemed able to surprise him, Bakura or Marik. Then again, they had been in the gods' world for almost a month now, under the lessons and trainings of Goddess Horakhty's apprentice and servant.

"Well, okay then, let's keep going and hoping we don't get eaten by those Shadow Hounds you are mentioning."

* * *

"It's been a long walk, we should stop and get some rest."

No one dared say anything. Since the time they stepped into this place, Yugi had become a cold, hard, quiet and strict leader to them more than a friend. But they didn't blame him, considering what Bakura had said and what happened back at the scary forest. They had witnessed Yugi spilled the monster's blood on the ground mercilessly with a blank expression like he didn't care he just took a life. They had witnessed him fighting and battling like a true warrior, or sometimes a very skilled hunter. They had witnessed him moving faster than lightning and stabbing a golden spear into the giant's heart, and all he could think about was that fight would make his teacher, Ayame, proud. They had witnessed him nearly being stomped on, being knocked to the ground hard by enormous steel arms, yet he showed no fear, no pain even when blood trickled down his mouth.

They were starting to be afraid of this new Yugi. They looked over to him to see he was making some fire with Bakura and Marik clinging tightly onto him, sound asleep, though he seemed not to mind that a bit. They gasped.

"Yugi, how could you let them cling to you like that!? How could you betray us!?" Anzu exclaimed, luckily that didn't affect the sleeping two.

"Betray you? What do you mean I betray you?" Yugi asked calmly and softly.

"You acted like a cold ruthless leader to us, but they can cling to you to sleep?" Yugi sighed.

"First, I always acted like that in fights. Now I'm relaxed, still be on guard of course. Second, those two's souls are in turmoil. You don't know how much this place can change a person. They are scared, can't you see? How would you feel to be back to the place that had tortured you for what seemed like an eternity?" They all paled.

"What...what do you mean by that?" Ryou asked shakily.

"Haven't you figured it out? This place...is the Shadow Realm, where we sent them to after we defeated them, and also one of the entrances that connects the Realm of the Gods to the Mortal World." Many gasps were heard from them. Kaiba remained expressionless, but Yugi could tell he was shock.

"Wait you said one of the entrances. You meant, there was more?" Yugi nodded.

"But I couldn't open the other two. I didn't have enough power. The others are the Darkness Realm and the Light Sanctuary."

"Wow." Yugi nodded.

"So any other question? And please keep your tongue down, I'd prefer those two asleep. I would be easier to take care of them." They shook their heads.

"Good. You all should take some sleep too, don't drain yourself. I'll be watching us." Yugi smiled, the smile that always made them feel safe, the smile that assured them he was still the old Yugi that was their best friend. They smiled back.

"But what about you? You haven't slept or eaten for what seemed like a day now." They could only guess, since there was no conception of time in here, as the Duel King had told them. Beside, the sky was always dark.

"I'll be fine, just go to sleep. I'll wake you up when we continue."

They nodded and did as told. It was an exhausting day, well not sure if it was a day or not, and they found it hard not to fall asleep. They lied down the ground and soon let sleep consume them, but not before they saw a smile slowly crept on their friend's face. Yugi looked at them while ruffling Bakura's white hair that was currently on his lap.

"Sleep tight, Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, Ryou, Kaiba. Sweet dreams."

And from that moment, they knew not to doubt anymore about Yugi. He had improved, but he hadn't changed, not much. They slept peacefully knowing their friend was still there.

* * *

After that, Yugi woke them up. He had that same expression from the fight again. They did not mind that much though. They knew from their friendship instincts that he was their friend, only colder because of their situation. So they wisely kept silent and just said anything necessary.

They encountered many more monsters, but none was as bad as the first one, and Yugi managed to handle them all on his own, making they wonder what they were doing here. No, they could think like that. Yugi needed them and they were his friends, they will go and support him even if they were not needed.

Soon enough, they started to settle down and rested again, this time near a stream of lava which no doubt would kill you with just one touch.

"We're near the door to the Mortal World, guys. We'll be there soon, don't worry." Yugi said.

"Really? We will finally get out of here?" Bakura asked, looking up from his position on Yugi's lap with hopeful eyes. The small teen ruffled his white hair again.

"Yes, Bakura, we're almost there. There is no need to be afraid." Yugi said as Marik shifted on his other lap, glad that their trip in this terrible, horrid realm was almost over.

They regretted saying that too soon.

A pack of pitch black dogs was heading toward them, growling and roaring. Each of them was as big as a lion and was covered with shadows despite their color. They had narrow red eyes that looked like they will rip you to shreds if they have the chance. They ran, no, it was more like surfed, their legs barely touched the ground, with an incredible speed and was about a mile away from them.

"Please don't tell me they are the Shadow Hounds." Ryou whimpered. Bakura and Marik was now clinging to Yugi even tighter, scared for dear life. The Shadow Hounds were one of their torturers back when they were still imprisoned.

"Unfortunately, yes, they're the Shadow Hounds. They rarely showed up, but when they do, you're not going to like it at all."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"They won't hurt me, but you guys..." Yugi sighed and looked at them through his shoulders. "...definitely." He pulled them to their feet and tossed them their backpacks. "So I guess we are going to do what people in this situation do." Then he took off running in a direction. "Run for your life!" The others gaped, but then followed him as well. They just hoped Yugi knew what he was doing and that they will not be some stupid hounds' lunch or dessert.

**Review PLEASE!**


	9. Chapter 9: Reunion

**Youngbountygirl: I know. I really appreciated your idea. I guess I just wanted to show how all the tortures in the Shadow Realm can change a person. I wanted to make it clear that it had changed Bakura and Marik into scared baby. Beside, they owed Yugi their life. Ayame was just so cold that could never comfort them, so they got Yugi's help and comfort. You're right, I made his friends a 'little' overreact.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.**

** Chapter 9: Reunion.**

Atemu's POV:

I was woken up by the sound of Isis' shouting.

"PHARAOH, PHARAOH WAKE UP!"

I groaned and buried my head in the pillow.

"What is it Isis? It's too early!" I complained, my voice muffled.

"You must come quickly! The other priests and I sensed a great source of Shadow Magic in the city!" That perked my interest. It's been a long time since anything has involved Shadow Magic. Since...that time when I returned and lost my magic completely with unknown reasons.

"Inform the soldiers while I get ready. We're going to the city." I ordered. She nodded and left the room.

* * *

We rode to where the priests had sensed the disturbance of Shadow Magic and I told them to examine the place. The people were gathering around out of curiosity, stopped by the soldiers outside the circle. I suddenly felt useless since I couldn't do anything to help. I lost every connection to the shadows and Shadow Magic. I couldn't use or even feel it. Mahado then interrupted my thoughts.

"My Pharaoh." I sighed.

"What is it my friend? Have you found anything?" The priest nodded.

"It seems that someone or something had entered the Shadow Realm and caused disturbance to the shadows." I gasped.

"Mahado! That's not possible!" He shook his head.

"There is no other explanation for this, my Pharaoh. I didn't want to believe it too, but it's the truth."

"Can you open the Shadow Realm then? I'd hate it if someone accidentally got lost in there and be rotten to death. Every of us knows it's not a very pleasant place."

"I'll see what we can do, my Pharaoh, but it won't be easy." I nodded and dismissed him. I continued to pace around while sighing constantly. It has been over two hours now and I growing bored, if not hopeless.

I started to hear the people shouting and screaming. I looked up to see a giant double with golden knobs made of red wood appeared out of nowhere in front of my priests, who was frozen in their spots. I was too shock to do anything except to just stand there gaping, my gaze fixed on the door. I was sure my priests would have laughed at me if not because they were doing the same. All of a sudden, the door swung open.

Yugi's POV:

"Why do all kinds of things always happen to us?" I heard Jounouchi yelled at the top of his lungs and growled.

"YOU THINK I LIKE THIS? WELL BIG NEWS: I DON'T! I DON'T LIKE THIS A BIT! AM I NOT IN THE SAME SITUATION!? I'M NOT ANY DIFFERENT HERE!" I snapped back. Unfortunately, while I was busy yelling, I didn't notice a figure ahead of me and ran straight into it, knocking us both over.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL?" I shouted and glanced to find I had just bumped into Seto, one of Atemu's most trust high priests and also Kaiba's incarnation.

"WHAT THE...! WHO ARE YOU?" He shouted at me. I immediately leaped away from him and ran over to my friends.

"Hey guys! It's the Mortal World!" I burst out excitedly. "We're safe."

"Really?" I nodded. "Those hounds cannot go to this world without permission. In fact, we were safe the moment we crossed the barrier near the portal." They sighed in relief while still panting heavily from running.

That was when I heard an oh so familiar voice shouted. "Aibou!" and I froze.

Third Person's POV:

Yugi whirled around to find dark violet eyes staring right back at him, eyes that he would never forget.

Atemu just stood there staring at his best friend, not sure what to do. He noticed that Yugi had grown a little taller from the last time they saw each other, he was still quite short though. His features had changed, especially his eyes, just not much. They were fiercer, sharper and more aggressive, more like his. They weren't so shy and weak anymore, but still held the same kindness and innocence of the Yugi he knew. Yugi was wearing a white cloak, so he couldn't see anything except for his head.

Yugi and the gang instantly ran over to the gaping pharaoh. As they reached him, they looked more closely at his expression before looking at each other and laughed their heads off. Gosh Atemu's face was HILARIOUS! They've never seen him so shock before. Even Kaiba snickered a little. So they just stood, pointing at him and laughed in amusement until they were cut short by someone yelling.

"You insolent peasants! How dare you laugh at our god like that! And you two..." They turned around to see priest Seto pointing at Yugi and Kaiba. "How dare you impersonate me and the pharaoh. You will answer to your crime!" The tall priest took out his famous weapon, the Millennium Rod. Everyone silenced themself and stared at him like he had gone mad. Kaiba snorted.

"You seriously think that thing can do anything to us? Hmm, my past-self truly had a sense of humor." Seto was red from anger and tightened his grip on the rod. He directed it at them, and before Atemu had time to say anything, attacked.

Everyone screamed, but Yugi and Kaiba didn't even faze. They stood strong and proud, looking and examining the golden light that was heading toward them. The light then bounced back and dissolved as it hit an invisible barrier around them, or around Yugi anyway, seeing that Kaiba was standing beside him.

That broke Atemu out of his shock and he bellowed. "Seto! Do not act without my permission. They hadn't brought any harm on me. Yugi and Kaiba were born like this, so they didn't impersonate anyone. Besides, my face was like a fish, how could they not laugh at me?" The priests gasped. Their pharaoh, their god, their morning star, had just said his expression looked like a fish, yet he killed everyone that dared look up at him for a second about six months ago when he first returned to this world.

"You...you know them, my Pharaoh?" Atemu broke into a big grin, forgetting all of his anger.

"Of course! They are my best friends." Atemu paused. "Wait! How did you all get here anyway? I thought the door was sealed forever."

"I said the same thing at first, but we really need to rethink about the conception of 'forever'." Atemu frowned.

"Well that's just strange." Yugi laughed.

"And you call the spirit of an ancient pharaoh who knows how to use a cell phone normal?"

"Point taken. But seriously, how the hell did you get here? And I can think of a hell lot of questions that are bugging me to death right now."

"Like...?"

"Why are you wearing a cloak? Why did you run out from the door to the Shadow Realm? How are you all speaking our language? AND WHY IN RA'S NAME ARE YOU HAVING OUR ENEMIES CLINGING TO YOUR ARMS?" Yugi shushed him.

"Hey, easy. You're scaring them. And for you information, they are completely harmless! They have been imprisoned for too long in that Ra damn forsaken place and they've changed, Atemu. Believe me, they've changed." Atemu wasn't sure, but agreed nonetheless, a little reluctantly.

"About the other questions, I would say it's a rather long story. How about we go to your palace first? We'll need privacy and not having your people's eyes around."

"Okay. The trip from here to the palace is quite long though. Do you need a few horses?" Yugi shook his heads.

"Let the others ride with your soldiers. You know very well they don't know how to ride a horse, well except for Kaiba, of course. You will need to get him one separate horse, that is obvious. I will take care of those two."

"But you don't have a..." Yugi suddenly whistled. After a moment, a large creature flew down from the sky, landed with a loud thud on the sand. Atemu was lost in a trance by its beauty.

It was a large white horse with wavy purple mane, sparkling emerald eyes and shining silver wings, like the bright moonlight Khonsu blessed Egypt every night with. The horse stomped its pitch black, harder-than-steel on the ground while bowing at Yugi. The teenage duelist grinned.

"Atemu, meet Kitakana. She's a pegasus." Atemu's eyes widened.

"A pegasus? But aren't they creatures of the Greeks?"

"They are. Kitakana was one of my trainer's gifts."

"You have a Greek trainer!?"

"Ancient Egyptian. She did something for the Greeks and got three of them. She is keeping the other two."

"You said one of the gifts. Does that mean you have more?"

"Yeah. You will see soon enough, but now I want you to see another one first. You need to gain her trust, okay? That won't be very hard, as long as you are not evil, she will accept you. Hey guys!" Yugi called, motioned for them to come closer. "You will need to be introduced too." He tucked his hand inside of his cloak and pulled out...

"AHHHH!" Jounouchi yelled and jumped back along with everyone else. On Yugi's cradling arms was a large black cobra with golden stripes, hissing at them.

"Guys! Don't act like that toward her! Namia is very sensitive. Come here and say hi." They gulped and slowly walked over to the cobra. They trusted their friend, but this was too much, and instincts were screaming for them to run and get away as fast as they could. They nervously reached out for the snake. She hissed louder but Yugi rocked her a little and she immediately settled down. The small teen sent an apologetic smile at them.

"Sorry. She's always suspicious with strangers. Don't worry about her biting though. She only bites when you have bad intentions or anything like that. Otherwise if she dislikes you she will just hiss at you."

"Erm, Yugi? I was just wondering. Does she have venom?" Yugi grinned.

"Of course she does! But like I said, don't worry. It will take about two or three minutes for the venom to kill you. That's a long time."

"TWO TO THREE MINUTES!?" They shouted simultaneously. Yugi flinched.

"What's wrong about it?"

"You're kidding us!" Yugi chuckled. "Okay, okay. That's not a very long time. Still, I told you she won't bite! Jeez! If you get to know her better, you will see she makes a good friend, guardian, and pet."

"Now that's settled. Can we go now?" Atemu asked.

"Why are so eager about this?" He smirked.

"So I can show my palace, and I want the explanations as soon as possible."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

**I know this is not a very good chapter, but I'm a new writer here and I've tried my best. Please don't judge me. Read and Review.**

**Next chapter: Atemu's Shadow Magic and the Millennium Dagger.**


	10. Chapter 10: Explanations

**A/N: Hey guys, I have decided to separated this chapter into two, for it will be too long to write and I'm quite lazy. School is going to start next Monday. So the next chapter will be "Atemu's Shadow Magic and the Millennium Dagger", okay?**

**Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Yugioh**

**Chapter 10: Explanations. **

Third Person's POV:

They arrived at the palace shortly after. Upon seeing Atemu, the guards immediately moved out of the way for fear of their lives. Yugi frowned.

"Atemu. Why are your people and your soldiers so afraid of you? Truly you must have treated them really badly now that you are scaring the hell out of them just by riding past." Atemu didn't answer, instead he bowed his head in shame and was silent the whole time. Yugi's eyes softened.

"It's okay. I know you've been having a hard time Atemu. That's why we're here. To help you. You lost you Shadow Magic too, right?" Atemu's head snapped up.

"How...how did you know about that?" Yugi smiled sadly, his face darkened.

"Because I was the cause of it." The ancient pharaoh wanted to push further, but the look on his friend's face told him not to.

* * *

Atemu led them to the throne room. It was huge with high ceiling and large pillars and looked like the whole room was golden. He ordered the servants to bring in some seats and they settled down. Jounouchi and Honda whistled.

"Nice place." They said in unison. Ryou and Anzu smiled at their childish antics. Atemu nodded.

"It is. Now care to explain how did you all come here in the first place?" Every one all turned and looked at Yugi. He sighed.

"How about I tell you from the start?"

"That's what we all want to hear." He nodded.

"Guys, do you remember that day when we took the stupid math test which turned out that nobody got higher than fifty?" Ryou, Honda, Jounouchi and Anzu all paled and shivered in fear.

"How could we forget? We seriously thought our lives had ended right then and there!"

"Yeah. That day I went to the park to think and searched for answers. I got lost on my way home and stumbled into a strange alley. I was cornered by about four or five bullies. They were about to attack me when _she _appeared." Yugi paused a little at seeing the gang widened their eyes, only Atemu and the priests looked confused, but said nothing. "Ayame. I couldn't look at her fully, only her face, as she was hidden in the dark. She had fierce blood red eyes, and her expression was cold and deadly I swore it put all of the serial killers on earth to shame, yet her beauty could only be rivaled by the goddess Hathor herself. She did not move or even blink when the bullies lunged at her. She then stared directly at them and tilted her head to the side a little. She wasn't afraid, she was observing and challenging them. It was then that I noticed her eyes narrowed and seemed to swirl like a vortex. There wasn't any word suitable to describe how frightening they were. I was frozen to the spot. I couldn't move or rip my eyes from her gaze, like my eyes were glued to it. But the bullies were worse. They started screaming, begging, struggling, punching and kicking at random directions, and some were whimpering in pain, though nothing was there. Kind of like the time Atemu punished Ushio, but this time she didn't even have to move her fingers. She showed them their worst nightmares. When she was done the bullies all collapsed. She turned to me and I asked her who she is. She told me her name is Ayame and stepped closer so I managed to see her fully. She wore an Egytian dress, but the weird thing was it was black. Usually if you remember Ishizu's dress was always white or maybe, light yellow, the color of Egypt's sand. Suddenly I saw another strange thing, the eye of Wadjet on her forehead." At this, everybody gasped. "The same eye that appeared on Atemu's forehead whenever he used Shadow Magic, though this one was silver. I was so shocked to say anything, just stayed in my position and gaping. She pulled me up from the ground and slipped a note in my hand. It was the directions to go home, then she disappeared into the darkness. So I followed the instructions in there and found my way home." He paused, letting them have some time to absorb all what they've just heard. "I never told any of you or even grandpa about it. I didn't know exactly what happened so I thought it would be a one time thing. I was not bothered by it for a while, I just ignored it and pretended as if nothing had happened. But then grandpa left for a dig in Egypt and one day, I saw her on TV. She's the CEO of the Sennen Corporation." Kaiba gasped.

"You know it, Kaiba?"

"Of course. The Sennen Corporation is one of the most successful company in the world. I don't want to admit it, but Kaiba Corp is nothing compared to it."

"So...I went to their headquarter in Domino to find out the truth, since I've never heard of a company like that and suddenly it appeared, famous and all, like Doma. I asked her a lot of questions, but she answered none of them. Then she mentioned Atemu." Yugi inhaled sharply. "She said she knew everything we have been through, everything from the start. She introduced herself as an apprentice for the goddess Horakhty, and that you..." He looked at Atemu. "...were having troubles with adjusting to this place. You were lonely and you felt useless. You didn't have any real friend except for Mana. Am I right, Atemu?" Said person sighed.

"Yes, it's true. I have my priests here, but they respected me way too much. They treated me like a god. So what I am, doesn't mean you had to act like that." Atemu looked upset, directing his disapproval to his trusted servants.

"We're sorry, Pharaoh. We did not know." Mahado said.

"That's fine." Yugi decided to cut in.

"Well anyway, I'm afraid I have to interrupt before this conversation gets too depressed. As I was saying, Ayame told me about every of your problems here and she offered me a chance to visit." Yugi turned to his...well his and Atemu's friends. "I did mention you guys. I asked if you all could accompany me, but she said she didn't have enough power to. It was either just me alone or none of us could go at all. I had to reluctantly agree. You would think that after the incident with Bandit Keith snatching my puzzle, I had learnt my lessons about trusting strangers like that. But when I talked to her, I felt warmed and safe. I somehow knew I could trust her. Even if we have just met, I felt a closed connection to her, like we have known each other for years. Even closer than you guys." He shook his head. "I know it sounds offending, but I'm telling the truth. I forgot to tell you guys about this because I have had a lot on my mind at the time. I thought about her offer, Atemu, and the connections I felt to her. The next day, she called and told me to meet her at Domino airport after I had packed. We left for Egypt. I met grandpa there when he was with his team digging and informed him of my leaving. She led me to a small temple hidden under the sand with a huge golden door inside. She pressed her palm on the door and it opened.

The world behind that door was amazing! I soon learned that it was the Realm of the Gods. I even met some of them. She asked me if I know how to fight. And, of course, I said no. She insisted there were many rebels who plotted against Atemu and that I had to learn. Therefore, I spent the next one month and a half to train before she allows me to go. Weapons, strength, skill, fighting, and magic. Every Hikari and Yami have magic. That includes you, Bakura (A/N: The good one.), and Malik. It's just that we were so weak to realize it, and the Yamis had the Millennium Items so their magic was stronger and more obvious, more...noticeable. During the training, the gods and she gave me gifts for my improvement, like Namia and Kitakana. One day I asked her how would she bring me to the past. She explained that, as you probably already know, gods are immortal. They live forever, so there isn't a conception of past or future in their realm. It is connected to any and every timeline. I could go there from the future and from there go to the past. It is like a bridge between time. The Shadow Realm, the place where we had just come out from, along with the Light Sanctuary, are the only two ways to go from the gods' realm to the Mortal World. And, well,..." Yugi motioned to the gang sitting next to him. "...on the last day, they came. I was surprised to see them there, but didn't question it. Now, your turn."

"What?" Jounouchi asked dumbly.

"Your turn, Jounouchi, all of you. Tell me how you got there."

"Just a little convincing. She was rather easygoing. Although there is a time limit."

"Time limit?"

"Five days. We can only stay five days." Yugi sighed.

"Just what I thought. She's not easy like you think. I've been near her enough."

"How about you, Atemu?"

"What about me?"

"You want to tell your priests about our time together? They seemed confused." That was an understatement.

So Atemu had to spend another hour to explain to his priests their journey, starting with Yugi solving the Millennium Puzzle.

"After years of magic and mysteries, I can't say I'm not surprised. You've been through a lot." Isis said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I agree." Mahado spoke. A silence followed after that.

"So...any question you want to ask?" Yugi started again.

"Yes. How is it that you met my two sworn enemies?" Atemu inquired.

"Good question. I found in the Shadow Realm prison, tortured by a pack of Shadow Hounds. The sight was horrible and heartbreaking. I managed to convince Ayame to give them a chance."

"What are Shadow Hounds?" Yugi was about to answer.

"NO! No more Shadow Hounds! You promised!" Bakura and Marik was shaking like crazy, gripping Yugi's collar tightly.

"No, no, no. There are no Shadow Hounds here, Bakura, Marik. I just mentioned them. They're not really here." Yugi was now waving his right hand frantically over their head. His palm glowed and when the light dimmed, the two were asleep. Yugi sighed.

"On the second thought, I shouldn't have taken the part of taking care of them."

"What was that?" Honda spoke.

"Light Magic. I did tell you Ayame made me train magic too didn't I?" They just stared at him. The Game King smiled nervously.

"Anyway. Like Priestess Isis asked before, Shadow Hounds are the best torturers of the Shadow Realm. They were also the things who chased us in there."

"So that's why you guys were running like it's the end of the world." Atemu commented.

"If we didn't then we would have been dinner for a pack of dogs. We were lucky they started chasing us near the door. Our speed is no match for theirs." Yugi said seriously.

"How are they able to understand us?" Anzu asked.

"Magic." He said simply.

"You put magic on us?"

"Ayame, not me. I would have made you all mute."

"Why are you having that cloak on?"

"Sunlight. I would rather keeping my skin the same. Beside..." He pulled off his cloak. Everyone gasped.

Yugi still wore the same outfit they had seen him wearing at the Ceremonial Duel, plus the Millennium Puzzle. On his wrist tied the Millennium Necklace. A pair of golden Sais was sheathed on both of his sides, but the right side had a dagger with the symbol of the eye just like a Millennium Item. A silver bow and a bag full of arrows were strapped on his back. He had changed his old shoes to black military boots, which helped to hide a pair of regular bronze daggers under them.

"What?" He asked, looking at himself. "Oh, sorry. You see, she wanted me to be armed properly. So yeah." Even Kaiba looked visibly scared. Yugi tossed the cloak to Atemu. "Try wearing it."

The ancient pharaoh did as told and was stunned. "Oh Ra! This thing's cooler than an air-conditioner."

"Air-conditioner?" Karim and Shada asked. The other priests looked no better.

"Uhm...Never mind. It's something from the future. Here Yugi." He threw the cloak back at its owner.

"No fair! I want one too." Jounouchi and Honda whined. Yugi laughed.

"If you can use magic to make one, then it's yours." They groaned. "Hmm, I think that's enough for today, right Atemu?" The other looked out and noticed that it was late. They had spent the whole day talking. He also noticed that his back was stiffer that stone.

"Agreed. If we sit here longer I don't think I'll be able to move my body for a week. I'll arrange you your rooms. Follow me." He turned to the others. "Dismissed." They bowed and left.

* * *

Yugi's POV:

That night, I couldn't sleep. So much was on my mind. I wondered how things were going back home. The thought of my friends leaving after five days also bothered me. I may be tougher now, but it's still nice to have their support.

All of a sudden, I saw a gold light shining brightly at the corner of the room.

"You need your sleep, you know." I smiled. Her voice may be cold and could send chill down people's back, but to me, that sound brought comfort and an indescribable warmth. It was good knowing she was always beside me. I love like a sister, or perhaps a very closed friend. "I know. It's just a lot is on my mind now. Who are you really, Ayame? Or should I call you Atena like Lady Hathor always does?" She sighed, walking over to the window and looked outside distantly, her eyes empty.

"Lady Hathor tries to annoy me all the time, Yugi. That's why she calls me Atena. I despise that name." I sat up straight on the bed.

"Why though?"

"That is a story for another time. You're not ready for it just yet."

"You say that all the time. How long will I have to hear it? How long will I still be left in the dark?" I snapped. She calmly strode to the bed I was on and slowly sat down.

"I know what's best for you. I don't want to recall the past, either, but I will have to. I need time as much as you do, Yugi. Trust me, I've been through a lot more than you." My anger dissipated in a moment. I nodded and laid back down. With Ayame here, I found myself more at ease. After a while of thinking, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: WHICH PAIRINGS WOULD YOU GUYS WANT ME TO WRITE? I NEED YOUR IDEAS ASAP! I NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE STORY. OH AND I WON'T WRITE PUPPYSHIPPING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. SORRY.**

**Also if you guys have questions, review. I will answer it if I find it suitable for the time being. I'm gonna put it in the next chapter. Your questions will be the others asking Yugi.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Your reviews made me feel better. I'm sorry for doing this, FrostyFallon. I love you, Youngbountygirl.**

**Youngbountygirl: I felt so bad for doing this to you, my friend. Anyway, I've seen not so many stories with the pairings you suggested. My goal is to gain more reviews. I want to write couples that would attract readers. What do you think?**

**FrostyFallon: I'm sorry! I was about to wait longer, but after reading your review, I couldn't. Sorry to get your hopes up and failed them. I'm so terrible.**

**Breana: Yes there will be chapter 11, 12, 13,...**

**Disclaimer: Yugioh isn't mine.**

** Chapter 11: Atemu's Shadow Magic and the Millennium Dagger.**

Yugi's POV:

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of crying. Quickly grabbing my daggers, I opened the door and ran into the dark hallway, using my magic to freeze the guards in the process. I didn't want them to make a fuss and wake everyone else because of it.

I checked every single room carefully until I came up to a certain door that made me sigh half-heartedly. Guess they were having a nightmare again. I put my hand on the door hesitantly before slowly opening it. Bakura was completely fine, but Marik was crying and thrashing in his sleep. I strode over to him to place two fingers on his forehead and felt warmth run through my body. I willed it to the tips of my glowing fingers and sent it to the figure on the bed. He calmed down and felt asleep peacefully. I sighed again.

'Great.' I thought. 'What was I thinking when I told Ayame I would b in charge of them? Then again Hikaris are always like that. I wonder how she is a Hikari, being cold and deadly and all.'

"Tough night?" I whirled around to see Atemu standing at the doorway with his arms crossed on his chest, his eyes held a little amusement. "I was wondering why my guards were frozen to the spot. It could be quite dangerous."

I laughed and shook my head. "It's perfectly fine. Just for a while. I kind of burst out of my room because of some unknown reasons. I didn't want to wake any of you. Beside, Namia alone can guard this hallway well enough."

"Namia? You mean the cobra?" I nodded.

"Is that safe? I mean, these people here are strangers to her. It's not that I don't trust you, but..."

"I understand your worry. I've already told me not to attack without my consent unless necessary. Namia is smart, Atemu. She knows what to and what not to do." I assured him.

"Just checking. Are you going to release the guards now?"

"The spell will wear off in a few minutes. What are you doing out of bed, by the way?"

"I could ask you the same."

"You already know why."

"I couldn't sleep."

"Let me guess. A lot on mind."

"You are such a mind reader, aren't you?"

"Not quite. If I can understand you enough to beat you in Duel Monsters, I can read your mind like an open book. And it happened to me too. Ayame came and soothed me to sleep."

"She came here?" Atemu asked, bewildered.

"Not really. It's like she sent her image here. But it's an illusion, you can't touch her, like a message."

"So...seeing that both of us can't sleep now, how about we go to the garden?"

"Sounds great."

* * *

Atemu and I sat on the edge of the small pond next to a bush. We were silent for a long time.

"Yugi? I have a few questions."

"Huh?"

"What did you mean earlier when you said you are to blame for the loss of my Shadow Magic?"

"Oh." I chuckled. "I didn't really mean it. The gods took your Shadow Magic away."

"But why?"

"Because you had no light. The last time, one of the reasons of the rise of the shadows is because they let use your Shadow Magic freely. Pure darkness or pure light will attract shadows and evils. In your case, pure darkness. You need light to balance your darkness and to hide its strong presence from the shadows."

"Why did they let me use it the last time?"

"Because Hikaris and Yamis are still mysteries to them. They didn't know about the balance back then. Every time you use magic, any type, you need your opposite to balance."

"But you could use your Light Magic."

"I had the Millennium Items. They contain darkness. I contain light. But you...you had darkness. They had darkness. They can't balance your power."

"Speak of the Millennium Items. How did you get them?"

"Ayame got them from the ground where they were buried."

"And what of the dagger on your belt?"

"You mean this?" I raised the said dagger. He nodded. "It's called the Millennium Dagger."

"But there are only..."

"Seven of them?" He hesitated. "Yeah. There are only seven of them. But seven of ones your father created."

"What do you mean?"

"There are seven more Millennium Items, the original ones. They were created by the gods. The book Priest Akhnadin found that showed how to create the items was theirs. Instead of created by blood and people's lives, these original items were created by their masters' pure godly powers."

"What are the others?"

"I don't remember all of them. There is the Millennium Circlet, which I'm keeping along with this. The others are with Ayame. The Millennium Mirror, the Millennium Bracelet, the Millennium DiaDhanks, and uhm...I can't remember."

"You have two Millennium Items?"

"Four. You forgot the Millennium Puzzle and Necklace." He shook his head.

"I still can't believe this." I grinned.

"Believe me. You'll get used to it. I bet it." We sat in silence once again.

After a little while, he stood up suddenly.

"Well, it's morning. How about a little breakfast?" I looked up at the sky to see that he was right.

"With you as pharaoh here? I doubt it would be a _little_ breakfast." We both laughed.

"We should head back nonetheless. The others will be worried sick." He said.

"Fine."


End file.
